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Ninja Binge
Ninja Binge is the 22nd episode (24th in Japan) of Kirby: Right Back at Ya!. It is the only episode where Kirby becomes Ninja Kirby. Synopsis Professor Curio has a break-in late last night, but the robber was a failed ninja from a ninja academy trying to steal a scroll. Kirby tries to help him learn to be better. It seems that the scroll has another admirer, King Dedede. Episode Summary The episode starts with a short, light brown person wearing a cloak and stealthily tip-toeing through Cappy Town at night. He peeks in the windows, seemingly looking for something. He keeps doing this until he quietly breaks into Professor Curio's shop and steals a suspicious scroll. However, he accidentally activates his alarm clock and wakes him up. He escapes, but trips and leaves the scroll behind. The next morning, Curio reports what he saw to Chief Bookem, while Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby listen nearby. Curio explains that it's an ancient scroll that once belonged to ninjas, and they used them to pass down their fighting methods to other ninjas. Tuff thinks that ninjas are cool, and decides to start pretending to be one. Kirby also likes the idea. Meanwhile, King Dedede and Escargoon visit Cappy Town, suspicious of the Cappies' actions, because they have all seemingly disappeared from town. The truth is all of the Cappy kids are pretending to be ninjas (even some of the grown-ups are participating), and suddenly ambush Dedede with toy ninja stars, and then run away. He gets mad and yells at them, attempting to scold them all, but they just ignore him, except for them leaving miniature spiky stars all over where Dedede and Escargoon are standing. Upon regaining their balance, they question the Cappies and find out they're wearing what the ninjas wear, inspired by the incident of Curio's scroll. Later, the duo go to Curio's place to look at the scroll; they distract him and quickly swap the scroll with a fake so they can learn how to be real ninjas. Tuff, Kirby, and his friends are watching however and call them out. Dedede threatens Curio with imprisonment so he can get away with it, but after he leaves, the thief from last night appears and chases after him. They begin learning how to be ninjas at Castle Dedede. Tiff is wondering why everyone's so into ninjas nowadays since there are none left, but Meta Knight appears and tells her that she is wrong. He explains that ninjas were strong warriors that fought alongside the Star Warriors in the war against eNeMeE. They were famous for their incredible skill in battle, and he believes that some of these ninjas are still around. He also tells Tiff the story of Yamikage. According to Meta Knight, Yamikage betrayed the Star Warriors to work for Nightmare Enterprises and Meta Knight is worried that he was the ninja that tried to steal the scroll, considering he was never defeated. Meanwhile, Tuff and his friends, including Kirby, start taking learning how to be ninjas more seriously now and want to steal the scroll back from Dedede in order to learn more about being ninjas. That night, he and Kirby sneak inside the library where Escargoon is sleeping next to the scroll, so they quietly snatch it and walk through the hallway, but Kirby notices the same ninja that tried to steal the scroll. Except this time, his cloak color is much more visible, and it's actually red. They yell the fact that it's a real ninja, however, the figure runs away. This causes Escargoon and King Dedede to wake up and demand they give the scroll back, but then Tiff, Fololo, and Falala arrive due to the noise. Tuff claims that he saw a real ninja hiding, but he ran away. Dedede and Escargoon outright don't believe him, and Tiff, Fololo, and Falala didn't see him. After looking around a bit, they spot him clinging onto the ceiling, but he can't hang on and falls down on Tuff, causing him to drop the scroll. He quickly grabs the scroll and runs away with it, and the others chase him down. The ninja escapes the castle with the scroll in hand and goes to Cappy Town, but is confronted by the Cappies while Tuff, Tiff and Kirby chase after him, but he keeps running and evading capture, until he teleports to a tree branch, and can't hold on and falls off in front of the trio and leaves the scroll hanging. He guards it and threatens to throw real ninja stars at them, however, they all miss by a long shot. He then admits that they're plastic and starts crying. Finally, he explains to them that the scroll is actually his report card from ninja school, and he lost it one day. Apparently, he (actually named Benikage) was such a bad student that he had to drop out, and all of the red triangles on the scroll basically mean "F." Tuff decides to teach Benikage how to be a ninja, so he won't be a failure anymore. The next day, King Dedede still believes the scroll is real, and orders Meta Knight's old enemy Yamikage from Nightmare Enterprises to steal back the scroll. Meanwhile, Benikage and Kirby are doing some target practice, but they're not doing so hot. Finally, a ninja star hits the target, and Tiff and Tuff congratulate them, but neither of them threw it. It's revealed that Yamikage did it, and he's come to reclaim the scroll. Tuff tells them the truth that the scroll is actually a bad report card, but Yamikage ignores and still wants it; Benikage grabs it and runs off with it, and Yamikage appears in front of him, and they duel for it. Benikage is overpowered, and he loses the scroll, and King Dedede grabs it. When Yamikage throws one last knife at him though, Kirby rushes in and inhales it, and becomes Ninja Kirby. After his transformation, Kirby has a sword duel with Yamikage, and can even throw ninja stars properly now. Yamikage unleashes a gale from his sword, causing Kirby to become disoriented, and allowing Yamikage to hit him and cause him to fly back a little; just when Yamikage is about to perform the final blow, Kirby teleports away and appears behind him. He grabs Yamikage and performs Air Drop, causing him to be KO'd, and Kirby falls back down without his ability. In a cloud of smoke, Yamikage disappears, but not before telling him that he'll have his revenge one day. Later in the day during sunset, Benikage explains to Tiff, Tuff, and Kirby that he is inspired by what happened that day and has decided to start over in his ninja class and work harder, and the episode ends with Benikage teleporting away, but he accidentally appears in the river instead, and swims away. Changes in the Dub Scene Changes * After King Dedede and Escargoon successfully steal the legitimate scroll from the town's archaeologist, the next scene shows Tiff taking a short stroll across the courtyard until three shuriken fly past her and angrily turns around to see where they came from. In the dub, the scene just cuts to Tiff randomly being in the corner of the screen since that context-giving scene was cut from the dub. ** There's another few scenes that were cut. After the two of them pop up beside Tiff, the next few shots show King Dedede throw shuriken at Escargoon, the latter shifting his body to evade them before proceeding to disappear in a cloud of smoke, and the king again throwing them only this time from a higher elevation while telling his henchman to prepare himself. This entire thing was cut from the dub in favor of having Tiff immediately respond to their antics. * After Benikage disappears from the Cappies, a wide camera pan sweeps the town square before revealing he hid within the tree's branches. This camera pan was cut from the dub. * The fight between Benikage and Yamikage was shortened in the dub. * Before Yamikage could end their fight, a commercial break was added in by 4Kids. Script Changes * When Prof. Curio turns on the lights to investigate the break-in, he shouts, "Who's there?!" in the original version. His line was cut from the dub. * As King Dedede and Escargoon are riding into Cappy Town discussing the villagers, the latter informs Dedede that the Cappies have disappeared. In the original, he simply mentions that they're all hooked on something strange. * Oddly enough, the Japanese voices muffled those who wore Japanese outfits given how their mouths were covered. In the English dub, however, the voices can still be heard clearly. * When Gengu is promoting everything related to ninjas, he calls his products by how they're properly called. Ninja suits (which is a step-up from just simply ninja apparel in the dub), shuriken, and scrolls (though in the dub, he calls them imitation scrolls). * While trying to distract Prof. Curio as King Dedede swaps the scrolls, Escargoon asks the archaeologist about the jar behind him, to which he reveals that it's from an ancient civilization, to which the snail replies that he appreciates this newfound knowledge. In the English dub, this was completely changed to asking if he heard the ice cream man; surprisingly there is an ice cream man, but Prof. Curio's confusion as to why he didn't hear him is enough to buy King Dedede time to swap the scrolls. * In the Japanese version, Yamikage actually calls out his attack, which is Fuujin no Jutsu, which translates to technique of the wind god. ** Likewise, in the scene where Kirby escapes being killed by the ninja's attack, Benikage originally calls it a substitution jutsu. In the English dub it's just passed off as teleportation. Trivia * This is one of the few episodes that references ancient writings, though the Japanese and English versions prefer to call them by different titles. In the original version, they're known as Pupupumaji. In the English dub, they're known as ancient Cappy-glyphics. * Benikage's name translates to Crimson Shadow. ** Yamikage's name translates to Dark Shadow it:La pergamena dei ninja ja:ニンジャ、ベニカゲ参上! Category:Kirby: Right Back at Ya! Episodes